Software Update for Kindle Paperwhite – Version 5.3.8

Amazon has been moving a lot of gears this past week. In addition to announcing the 2nd gen Kindle Paperwhite, they have also just started rolling out a software update for the original Paperwhite.

As first when I saw an update was available I thought maybe Amazon was already adding some of the new features that were announced on the new Paperwhite, but alas it’s a minor update with just a few new goodies, mostly dictionary related.

The new software version is 5.3.8 and it includes the usual “general improvements” and the following new features:

* Search terms highlighted in search results
When you search for a word or phrase within a book, the search terms will appear highlighted within the search results. When you tap a result to go to that location in the book, the search terms will appear highlighted on the page.

* Select other dictionaries when looking up a word
When you look up a word in the dictionary, you can choose to look up the word in other dictionaries on your device from within the dictionary definition window.

* View other definitions of a word
When you look up a word that has multiple meanings for the same spelling (homonym), you can navigate through each of the available definitions from within the dictionary definition window.

As usual with Kindle updates, you can wait for the new software to download and install automatically when connected to wireless, or you can download the update file and install it manually. The directions for the latter can be found over on the Kindle software update page (link below).

There’s going to be a new set of Kindle Fires for sure. There have been tons of rumors about them, and it sounds like the specs are going to be pretty awesome, but every other tech website reports on the rumors endlessly and it gets rather tiresome. I usually don’t like posting about rumors—it seems kind of silly. I like to wait until some real info surfaces before writing about it. Given the fact Amazon just released a new Kindle Paperwhite, it’s seems likely the new Kindle Fires will be released in November.

One of the things that persuaded me to recently switch from Nook to Kindle is the updates Amazon does. I can only recall one significant update to the Nook Simple Touch/Glow since they were released, and that was to the dictionary. I hope Amazon will release an update that will approximate the new Paperwhite software, but I rather doubt it…I’m guess they’ll want to provide incentive for folks like me to upgrade to the new PW.